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The article presents views on the history of international trade for chinaware. Chinese blue-and-white porcelain was traded southward and then westward late in the 14th century, although by that time other Chinese export wares were centuries old. They had long moved in both directions between China and the Islamic world, partly along the ancient silk road through central Asia, but preponderantly in the cargoes of Arab and Persian seafarers. Indirect through it was, the distribution system efficiently communicated back to the Chinese information on the tastes of their Muslim customers. Meantime, there also developed in the Middle East a wave of cheaper local copies. When they began appealing to customers in their own right, these products no longer needed to be strictly imitative. Soon the West got into the act. After a resolute process of exploration at least as consequential in the eyes of contemporaries as the voyages of Columbus, the Portuguese finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope late in the 15th century, opening the Orient to sea trade. Quantities of blue-and-white were being shipped to Lisbon as early as 1530, becoming no less prized in European markets than they were elsewhere. Once again the Chinese producers were quickly responsive to the changing demands, helped along in this case by painted wooden models that the Dutch sent along with their huge orders.